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Sword Art Online: of Death Games and Diapers


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So, this chapter took a bit longer to release than the others. My productivity is sort of slowing down just a bit, but I’m still able to write at a decent pace compared to my previous works I’ve posted here.

That being said, the reason I took so long wasn’t just because I was writing slower, but rather because I wanted to increase my unpublished chapter reserve again. So as of this posting, I’m onto chapter twelve. This is about good for me as far as my reserve goes, so from here on out, I’ll probably be posting chapters at a faster pace again.

Also, the story cover is done, if anyone wants to see it. I attached it at the bottom if you're interested. Many thanks to ThatMarchingBunny for drawing it for me! Here's a link if you wanna check her out.

Catch you below!


Sword Art Online: Of Death Games and Diapers

Chapter Six: Nightmare


With the time and place set up for teaching Asuna about the basics of party combat, we decided it’d be best to turn in early so we could wake up early the next morning. After much deliberation, my raid partner put her foot down and said we’d share the bed, and that was final. I kept trying to tell her I could take the couch, but she wouldn’t listen and kept spouting on about how nice I’d been to her and how I didn’t deserve that treatment, so I eventually just gave up.

So here we were, getting ready to go to bed in my spacious, comfy bed that was probably meant for two anyway, going by the size. I didn’t mind that I’d be sharing it; it was big enough that even with us both laying in it, we might not even touch each other, unless one of us tossed and turned in their sleep. And considering this was SAO, I wasn’t even really sure if you could move while sleeping anyway, so whether that was even a legitimate concern was up for debate.

Speaking of windows, I gave Asuna the side with a glass bay window as a courtesy. This also meant that, since the bed resided right up against that wall, she’d have to climb over me if she woke up and wanted to, as a spitball, pilfer the chest in the other corner and beat a hasty retreat. Call me paranoid, but considering how nice to me she’d been since the meeting, there was a non-zero chance that it was all an act and she was out to get back at me for how I was treating her when she first woke up. Though the more likely alternative at this point would be for her to wake up at some odd hour of the night and go dungeon crawl for several hours… well, I liked to keep my bases covered.

As Asuna prepared to get under the covers, I noticed she was wearing pajama pants over her diaper. I sighed. “I swear I’m just saying this for your sake, but well… you might wanna take those pants off. When you wear a diaper to bed and pants on top of it, it can make you quite a bit sweatier than normal, especially if you wet the bed.”

“… I see. Turn around,” she said with a somewhat sad look in her eyes.

I heard the flashing SFX the game threw out when someone changed their equipment, and then I heard her rustling with the covers on the bed. Once the rustling stopped, she called out to me. “You can look now.”

I turned around to find that she’d already gotten under the covers on her side of the bed, as expected. She was looking right at me, as if expecting me to say something. But I wasn’t exactly sure what she wanted, so there were a few moments of awkward silence before she spoke up.

“… You said after I got out of the bath, you’d talk to me about this kind of stuff,” she reminded me, looking up at me with a tinge of red blossoming on her cheeks. “How to improve my toilet training stats, whatever those are.”

My eyes widened as I remembered saying that when I gave her the diapers. “Oh, right. Thanks for reminding me. First things first, I’ll show you how to view them. Bring up your status window.”

As she reached her right hand up from under the covers, I did the same, bringing up my own menu and navigating to the status screen. “Notice how in the top right corner, it says ⅓? That’s because there are three pages of stats. Basic stats like Attack, Defense, STR, VIT, DEX and AGI are on the first page. The second page is a list of your active buffs. Passives are shown as they are, but active buffs from items and buff skills show their duration next to what they do. The third page is for the stats in the Bathroom Needs System. Navigate by swiping in either direction.”

“There are… ten bathroom stats? That’s a lot… and they seem to be treated more like skill proficiencies than normal stats. Why so complex?” Asuna pondered, before beginning to read their names aloud. “Bladder Capacity, Bowels Capacity, Bladder Control, Bowels Control, Bladder Awareness, Bowel Awareness, Peeing Ease, Pooping Ease, Bedwetting Rate and… Bed-Pooping Rate. Ugh, who designed this…?”

I got what she meant. I’d wondered that myself. It didn’t even exist in the beta, and yet it had been designed and fleshed out to this extent in only a few months’ time? How? Why? By whom? Maybe it was just my false impression of the guy, but it struck me as hard to believe that Kayaba Akihiko would think of this kind of stuff on his own…

“If you tap on a stat, it opens up a subwindow where it explains each stat’s basic purpose and how to raise or lower it,” I continued explaining, ignoring her side commentary for the time being. “Can you give me the readouts for each of your stats? Strats usually depend on where they’re currently at.”

She hesitated for a moment as her face turned beet red before beginning to read the numbers out. “Bladder Capacity: 543. Bowel Capacity: 1000. Bladder Control: 555. Bowel Control: 1000. Bladder Awareness: 552. Bowel Awareness: 1000. Peeing Ease: 908. Pooping Ease: 0. Bedwetting Rate: 536. Bed-Pooping Rate: 1000.”

As she read through all her stats, her face got redder and redder, until her whole face looked ready to spontaneously combust by the end. I felt for her, I really did, especially after realizing just how bad her bladder stats were, but… how did they get so bad in the first place…?

Wait a minute, that’s right… when we met, she was grinding in the labyrinth nonstop. It doesn’t have bathrooms, so…

“When you were in the dungeon for days on end… how did you use the restroom? I know you didn’t eat to avoid that problem, but…” I asked, almost afraid of the answer.

“I wore diapers all day, so I just… went whenever I got the urge and got it over with as quick as possible.” I didn’t realize it was possible, but her face got even redder as she said this. It all added up for me now, but… this poor girl… “Ugh, this is so embarrassing. I wanna die…”

I reached over and pat her head before replying. “I swear I won’t tell anyone. And I don’t think any less of you for it, honest. But, well… between you and me, you’re lucky those numbers are where they are, not lower. I’ve heard horror stories about the players who let their Awareness and Control stats fall below 500. It makes it almost impossible to raise them back up…”

Asuna’s face paled and tears came to her eyes, while she started leaning into my hand. “I couldn’t even hold it five minutes at the meeting, and it can get worse? This is unfair…!”

I ruffled her hair before taking my hand away and sitting down on the bed next to her. This had to be rough on her. It must’ve felt kinda… hopeless. But like I said, she was kinda lucky, all things considered. She still had some hope remaining.

I smiled down at her and raised my index finger. “There’s a ray of light for you. Since your Bladder Control and Awareness are above five-hundred, that makes it quite a bit easier to get them back up. Let’s see… I’ll compile a list of things to try for you tonight. In the meantime, while you struggle to raise them…”

“In the meantime, what?” she asked me, voice and eyes timid and vulnerable.

I went back into the menu I’d left open, then switched to my inventory submenu. I scrolled through my item list until I found what I was looking for, then materialized it. In an instant, an unopened pack of Starz-printed diapers appeared on my lap.

“How about I make a deal with you? Until you’re safely out of diapers again, I’ll wear them with you,” I told her, sending a sunny smile her way. “I’ll even go out of my way to get my stats to where yours are, if you want, and then we can struggle through raising them back up together. That way you won’t have to feel like you’re alone dealing with this.”

She looked up at me with wide eyes. Eyes full of questions. I guess it made sense for her to question my motives… I didn’t exactly tell her that I had a side job to map the stats out for Argo’s guide. But after a few moments of staring up at me, she smiled, then pulled my waist into a hug.

“Thank you…” she said, holding me as tightly as she could from that angle. “I wasn’t sure about you when we first met, but… you’re really kind. Too kind for your own good.”

I ruffled her hair again. Though it was true that part of my reason for offering this was my side job with Argo… that wasn’t the full truth. Considering how much Asuna seemed to be struggling over this, and considering how much she seemed to have warmed up to me since we met in the labyrinth, I just wanted to help put her mind at ease a bit. And if putting myself through the same experiences she had would help me do that, then I was all for it, honestly.

Starting, of course, with putting myself in the same diapers I’ve made her wear all day.

I gently removed myself from Asuna’s hug, turning back to smile at her reassuringly. “I’m gonna put one of these on, and then it’s lights out, kay? Look away for a bit.”

She nodded, returning to her normal position under the covers and looking out the window on the other side. I turned back to the unopened bag of Starz diapers and tore it open along the indicated spot, pulling one out. As I put the bag back into my inventory, I stood back up and set my diaper on the bed, unfolding it and flattening it out to uncrease it where it got folded. After checking to make sure Asuna still wasn’t looking, I went into my equipment submenu and unequipped my skirt and underwear.

I then sat down on the diaper, silently thanking the devs for not making it necessary to use baby powder or diaper rash cream for this stuff. I’d heard that using it could give you special buffs, but I hadn’t had any drop for me and wasn’t about to farm for them.

Maybe I should start if I’ll be wearing diapers full-time for the foreseeable future…

After making sure I was aligned properly, I laid back onto the diaper, then used my right hand to pull the front up between my legs and spread its wings out, make sure the leak guards were positioned properly, and then with my left hand, I ripped open the left tape and stuck it onto the landing zone so it was snug, but not enough to eat into my legs. Repeating the gesture a second time with the tape on the opposite side, I took a moment to wonder something for the second time.

Why is there only one tape per side with these diapers, anyway…? They’re like oversized baby diapers.

Nevertheless, with the tapes secured in place, my time in diapers had officially begun. I turned off the bedside lamp and slid under the covers, not even bothering to requip my skirt. When I said I wouldn’t make Asuna feel alone, I meant it.

“You can look now. Night, Asuna.”

The two of us didn’t speak another word before falling asleep that night.


Asuna’s eyes awoke to the beeping of her alarm. It was time to get up for school. She checked the date readout above the time’s digital display. November 18th, 2022. She got the results of the midterms back today…

After a shower and a change into her uniform, Asuna strode down the spiral staircase to the first floor. As she descended, a familiar voice called up to her. “Mistress, good morning. Your breakfast is prepared and ready for you.”

Asuna felt it, in that moment. The pressure of her family expectations seeping through, to even taint her interactions with their maid. But she simply smiled benevolently down at her, knowing that wasn’t the maid’s fault and nothing could be done about it anyway.

“Good morning, Sada-san,” Asuna told her as she neared the bottom of the staircase. “Thank you for letting me know.”

She walked through the house toward the dining room and found her mother sitting down at the table across from her seat, plate empty as she sipped away at her tea, her expression unreadable. Her mother looked up and met Asuna’s eyes with that crushing gaze of hers as the Yuuki daughter walked up, held her skirt up and sat down at the table.

“Good morning, mother.” Asuna tried her best to be polite, but her mother’s gaze made it hard to keep completely calm, as always.

“You’re late, Asuna. I’ve already eaten,” her mother told her in that stern voice she’d been hearing since she was a child. “You must’ve been up late studying last night. How is that going?”

Asuna did her best to put up a smile. Keeping up appearances was important, especially with her mom. “It’s good. I was first in the school district on the last mock test. And they’ll announce the results of the midterms today.”

Asuna’s mother flipped a page in the magazine she was reading. After deciding to ask Asuna a question, her mother barely even paid attention to her. Her stone-cold expression remained unchanged, even after Asuna announced her victory over the mock test.

Asuna pressed on, having long since gotten used to this treatment. “As long as I’m in the top ten, I can get into any school I want, and if I keep straight As until the final exams—”

“Listen, dear,” her mom cut her off, setting her teacup down with a soft clink. That crushing gaze directed right at her for the first time since she entered the room. “Why focus on your high school entrance exams? It’s the college ones that count. You need to move on and get started on the high school curriculum.”

Faced with those cold, stern brown eyes, Asuna could only smile back sadly. “Okay…”

Why does she think setting short-term goals to prepare for bigger ones is unimportant…?

“Perhaps we should’ve sent you to Kouichirou’s unified school instead.”

There it was. The ultimate blow to Asuna’s confidence. As usual, she was being compared to her brother, and as usual, she didn’t look well in that comparison. It… it hurt. Asuna’s gaze fell to her plate as she tried to ignore her heavy heart.

“I’m making progress in English and math. Time to eat.”

There. At least the damage to her self-esteem would stop with that.

After she finished eating breakfast, left the house and caught the train, the next stop greeted her in the form of a person getting on. “Yuuki-senpai!”

That bright, cheerful voice calling out to her shook Asuna’s focus on her book, so she looked up to greet her cute little underclassman as the shorter girl boarded the train. “Good morning,” she called back, giving her a reserved smile.

“I’ve heard you were first on the mock test again, senpai! Congrats!” her underclassman enthusiastically bubbled back.

At the mention of the same thing mother criticized her for, Asuna barely managed to keep herself from flinching. “Thanks.”

Just then, an ad started flashing on the monitor over their heads. Her underclassman started pointing at it excitedly. “Oh! Look, senpai! Have you heard of this one? Sword Art Online!”

That sounds familiar… but why?

Asuna looked up at the monitor, seeing the title in Japanese and in English. Its release date read out below that, and it mentioned a sale. Behind the text seemed to be a vast, fantasy landscape with some kind of floating island in the background. This scenery…

Something about it seemed familiar to her…

“They simulate all five senses and input them directly into your brain!” her underclassman excitedly explained. “It’s supposed to be super realistic! I wish I could try it…”

I think my brother mentioned that game to me too.

That explained where she’d heard about it before, but why did she recognize the scenery in the ad? Her brother certainly hadn’t shown it to her…

“Do you want to try playing it together, senpai?” her underclassman asked, wide-eyed and innocent.

Asuna shut her eyes. She couldn’t look at that face and turn her down at the same time, and the second part was more necessary than the first. “No. I’ve got exams to study for.”

When Asuna’s eyes opened, her schoolmate’s expression had deadpanned. “That’s no fun. You’re breezing through every test you take!”

Hearing this in turn made Asuna annoyed. Just because she always came in first didn’t mean that wasn’t a hard-fought battle in its own right! To have her constant struggles dismissed so casually rather than acknowledged even by fellow classmates was just too much. She flicked her underclassman on the head before beginning to speak.

“Who said that? I can’t take it easy when everyone else is trying to beat me and the difference between our scores is so low sometimes,” she said through grit teeth, trying her best to keep her eyes dispassionate. “Besides, playing games is a waste of time. You know high school exams aren’t the end goal, right? You don’t want the people from the unified schools to pull ahead because you’re busy playing with kids’ toys, do you?”

Crap, it was like the little voice of her mother in the back of her head criticizing her every action had started speaking for her… but it was too late to back out now. She had to commit, even if she didn’t really mean it anymore.

“You’ll be an exam student next year, so you need to grow out of this. Understand?” She pressed, already feeling bad just saying it at this point but still keeping up the façade.

But somehow, despite everything, her underclassman didn’t take it the wrong way. “Of course! Thanks for the advice, senpai!”

When they arrived, the first thing Asuna did was go over to where the exam rankings were listed. But when she made her way through the crowd, something was wrong. Very, very wrong.

I’m… not there.

Asuna wasn’t in first place. She wasn’t in the top ten. And the longer her eyes darted up and down in a desperate attempt to find her name, the more the growing ball of anxiety in her chest gnawed away at her. She couldn’t find it, no matter how hard she looked. Not even in the top 25. Her work… had gone to waste.

No way… why not?

“Hey, did you hear the rumors about Miss Yuuki?” a voice sounded out from behind her, sounding almost gleeful.

Another student spoke up almost immediately, seeming even more excited than the first. “I totally did! Supposedly she got sucked into some new video game and stopped studying.”

What are they talking about? I didn’t—

“Ah, no wonder she fell from the top ranks…” yet another student replied, this one sounding calm, yet still smug and self-confident.

She could hear other students giggling about it, about her. Like this horrible scenario was for nothing more than their entertainment. Asuna clenched her fists as tears began pricking at the corner of her eyes. Why had this happened to her…?

“But why a stupid video game? Isn’t that for kids?” another voice wondered aloud, using the words Asuna had just uttered on the train against her. “Does this mean she’s secretly an otaku nerd? That’s so creepy!”

No, it wasn’t true! It couldn’t be! Why would she do what they were saying? She had no motive!

“Good for us though, right?” one of the voices jeered at her, full of malice. “That’s one extra spot for us to slip into, haha!”

A familiar voice sounded out, just as taunting as the rest. “Oh, but just listen to this! The truth is, she was acting all cool, like ‘playing games is a waste of your time…’ and then she goes and starts playing one, only to get trapped inside!”

Asuna turned around to find the underclassman that rode the train with her that morning, sneering over at her, a mocking smile accentuating her belittling stare. And just like clockwork,  more and more eyes centered at her, the fallen genius of her district as they called her, all glaring at her with contempt and amusement. But nothing was more piercing than the laughter… they were all laughing at her…

What they said… it can’t be true, can it?

The school hallway and its students faded away, handing its place to a forlorn shade of black. For a moment, a silence as thick as it was suffocating settled. Then, the sound of her erratic heartbeat echoed in her ears like drum rolls, threatening to burst apart at any moment.

Stop...

But just as she had managed to push away the visual of her classmates laughing at her, her eyes met someone even more frightening. Staring down at her with an icy glare, so cold that even Asuna barely recognized her face, was—

“N-No, Mom…” Asuna weakly uttered, staring up at her mother with eyes wide from fear. “This is all a big mistake…!”

Asuna tried to reach out and grab her mother’s hand, but she couldn’t even touch it, like she wasn’t even there. Asuna started falling through her mother’s body, just barely managing to catch herself in time to stand back up. She turned back around to find her mom standing over a hospital bed. In the bed—

That’s me?!

The person her mother was looking at… was Asuna herself. She was lying down in a hospital bed, eyes closed, with a «Nerve Gear» covering her head. Wait, how did she know what that headgear even was?

“A game? A video game?” her mother said, voice thick with disdain. “You little fool. Have you no pride as a Yuuki? No shame?”

Asuna could feel the tears pricking at her eyes from before start to fall. She tried to protest, but she could barely find the strength to speak. “No… it’s not like that… I didn’t mean to…!”

But her mother couldn’t even hear her. And then in a flash, everything around her changed again, and she found a massive, disembodied red cloak hovering over her, and her memories of what had happened to her came back all at once.

I want to go home!

The red cloak, as if it could read her mind, seemed to directly answer her thoughts. “You will only be released under one condition— clear the game.”

I just want to go home!

Asuna’s eyes snapped wide open, and she felt like she could barely breathe. She tried to get a sense of the world around her, but she couldn’t make out her surroundings; tears were blurring her vision. She reached a hand over to her eyes and wiped the tears from her face, only to find…

What…? What is this?

She was lying on her back in what looked to be a giant nursery. The bright-colored walls looked vaguely familiar, but she didn’t recognize anything else in the room. Everything in it was childish. From the cartoonish pictures on the wall, to the stuffed animals scattered throughout the room, to the anime-printed blankets beneath her body, to the—

What?!

Affixed to her waist was an oversized baby diaper. Its plastic backing was bright blue, but partially discolored around her crotch. It had a star-printed pattern, where the stars seemed to normally be white, but where the blue was discolored, those same stars had turned yellow. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out why.

I’m wearing a wet diaper… but why?

“Dear, we can’t simply abandon her like this,” a familiar male voice resounded from the doorway. “What if her consciousness returns? It’s still possible she could recover from this setback…”

Asuna turned over to the source of the voice, finding both of her parents standing in the doorway. Her father appeared to be pleading with mother about something, but what?

Asuna’s mother replied to his concerns without missing a beat. “It’s time to face facts. She’s been like this ever since the SAO incident ended. She can’t speak, she can’t walk, she can’t even use the toilet on her own.”

Asuna tried to speak, but found she didn’t have the strength. When the sound left her mouth, it seemed akin to the gibberish a baby would speak, like she couldn’t even talk anymore. But why? What was wrong with her? What had happened to her?!

“See? If she’s like this so long after the incident, she likely won’t ever recover,” her mother continued, glancing over at her with those crushing eyes. “And if that’s the case, I think it’s time to cut our losses. Sugou-kun has offered to take care of her from now on. There’s nothing more for us to do.”

What?! With Sugou! Wait, this room—

That was where she recognized the walls. This was the guest room in Nobuyuki Sugou’s house. The fiancé her mother had been trying to set her up with for years. She’d rejected him over and over, but he’d never listened. He always acted like he owned her, like they would end up married no matter how she felt about it. But now…

They’re leaving me with him? But…

Her vision blurred with fresh tears. Upon seeing this, her father’s gaze fell to the floor. “I don’t know, dear… she never seemed to want to be in Sugou’s company. It seems a bit drastic to leave her with him when she’s in a state she can’t even refuse in.”

Kyouko looked back at him dispassionately. “You just said it yourself. With the state she’s in right now, she can’t refuse him.”

No! This can’t be happening! I won’t—


When Asuna opened her eyes, the world around her was dark. The tears in her eyes made it hard to make out her surroundings, but she seemed to be in a bedroom of some sort. She rubbed her eyes and looked around, finding a window on her right that showed a barnyard below her, on the ground.

To her left was the body of another person. A girl, just like her, with long, black hair that shone in the moonlight. The other girl’s chest slowly and rhythmically rose and fell as she slept, completely unaware of Asuna’s presence.

It was… a nightmare…

The start of that nightmare played out the same way every other nightmare since Asuna had gotten trapped in SAO had, but the end of it was new. She’d never dreamed about being stuck in a nursery of Sugou’s design before… why had the nightmare changed?

Her whole body trembled as she tried to regulate her breathing. But no matter how long she tried, she just couldn’t calm down. Her heart was still racing, her mouth felt dry, and her whole body felt sweaty as the trembling continued. This didn’t seem to be stopping any time soon…

Maybe I could…

She still felt terrified. She… she couldn’t believe she was even considering this, but… surely her acquaintance would forgive her, right? Before she had the time to second guess herself, she moved over in bed a little and leaned into her sleeping friend’s side, trying to keep the contact as light as possible to avoid waking her up.

But almost immediately after she did, those violet eyes opened just a sliver, and looked over at her. She seemed to stare right into Asuna’s eyes for a few moments before she asked a simple question.

“... Are you okay? It’s three in the morning…”

The question, spoken barely above a whisper, came as a surprise to the rattled fencer. The first thing the tired dual-wielder asked wasn’t what Asuna was doing; it was whether she was okay. “Sorry, I just… I had a nightmare. I can’t calm down…”

The black-haired girl paused for a few moments. Her amethyst eyes seemed to contemplate something as she lay there, looking out the window on Asuna’s other side. But then, without even asking what the nightmare had been about, she turned on her side, wrapping Asuna in a soft embrace and burying the chestnut-haired girl’s head in her chest.

Before Asuna could ask, the tired girl’s voice sounded out an explanation. “… Does this help? When my little sister had nightmares, this got her back to sleep.”

Asuna could feel the other girl’s calm, steady heartbeat in this position. It was strange. These bodies weren’t even their real ones, yet they could hear each other’s heartbeats. That heartbeat was intoxicating. She found her eyes growing just a bit heavier already.

“Yeah. This helps a lot,” Asuna replied, voice partly muffled by the black-haired girl’s embrace. “Sorry… and thanks.”

Those toned arms holding her close squeezed her reassuringly for a second. “Don’t worry about it… after how SAO turned out, nightmares like this are natural. I just hope you don’t mind… waiting to change until sunup.”

Those words made Asuna aware of the thick, damp padding between her legs for the first time. She’d wet herself in her sleep, as usual. But… right now, she didn’t even care. She was barely holding onto her consciousness, eyes growing heavier by the second. Like the other girl had said, she could wait to change until they got up for the day…

“I don’t mind,” Asuna said before yawning into the embrace. “Night.”

The girl holding her close gave another reassuring squeeze. “Night, Asuna.”

The last thing Asuna thought before drifting off moments later was a simple question.

I don’t mind, but… where did she learn my name?


As an aside, just to clarify something because one of the people I give previews of this to got confused: both Kiriko and Asuna were half asleep in the final post-nightmare scene. So don’t expect them to fully remember what happened from here on out.

With that out of the way, I think I’ll go get back to work on chapter twelve now. Catch you later, guys!

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On 2/3/2020 at 8:52 PM, Night Rain said:

I'm looking forward to seeing some of the other females in diapers along with finding out about the others little secrets.

Also, I thought I replied to this before, but I will say, I'm looking forward to writing other characters in diapers apart from the ones already shown, lol. Unfortunately, I have another arc or two to write before I can start on that, lol.

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I’m not sure if I mentioned this, but I fucking love Argo. She’s one of if not the best canon character for me. As a result of this, because of my twisted personality, I of course ended up giving her more bullshit to deal with than I do most characters. The more I like a character, the worse off they’ll be in my work, lol.

Anyway, catch you below!


Sword Art Online: Of Death Games and Diapers

Chapter Seven: Secrets the Rat Won’t Sell


After parrying the needle attack of the wasp-like insectoid monster with her right sword, the dual-wielder called out for Asuna to step in. “Switch!”

As she moved out of the way, Asuna rushed in and stabbed it through its abdomen with a swift yet severe «Linear», piercing clean through the root of its wings. The last of its HP drained, it shattered into polygonal shards soon afterwards.

Asuna turned around and smiled at her party member as the black-haired girl walked up to her, sheathing her swords in one fluid motion. “Nice work. That’s the general flow of switch-out team fighting. For someone who started a total beginner, you picked it up pretty quick.”

“… Thanks,” the fencer replied, taking a bit to catch her breaths.

They’d gone through around fifteen different wasps in a row up to now…

“You should check your looted items,” her partner said with a casual smile. “By now, it should’ve dropped.”

“Oh, so you chose this quest because of that, Kii-boy? Good call.” Argo’s voice chimed in, reminding the two of them they weren’t alone. Why had she decided to tag along when she ran into them in town, anyway…?

“What are you two talking about, I only got a—” Asuna stopped mid-sentence as she finally took a look at her drop list. “A sword…?”

“Yep. That’s a «Wind Fleuret»,” the dual-wielder said right as Asuna materialized it in her hands. The beauty gave her ebony hair a triumphant flip before continuing. “It’s great for a fencer, weighted towards speed and precision and having bonuses to DEX and AGI. Compared to the iron shop rapiers you’ve been using up to now, it’s in its own league.”

Asuna held the long, slender blade upright in her left hand, gently caressing its side with her right. “It’s beautiful…”

Before the silence could go on for too long, however, Argo cleared her throat to get the raid partners to snap back to attention. “Now you just need to upgrade it in town. After all that time in the labyrinth, you must have the mats to get it to +4. I can show you a good smith.”

“Ah, thank you. Um, how much will I owe you?” Asuna replied, glancing over at the informant with a nervous look.

“No charge. I’m the one who owes you,” Argo asserted, smiling over at Asuna like she was… grateful. But for what? “I’m sure you’d have preferred to stay out of sight back there.”

Memories of bumping into her partner right out of the bath and flashing the informant flooded back into the forefront of her mind, and her cheeks flushed bright red. She averted her eyes, trying to find the strength to speak.

“… Thanks.”

As soon as she finished choking the words out, the fencer found herself facing a very different kind of “flood.” Just like before at the meeting, she had to go, bad, and her bladder wouldn’t be waiting around. But… now that she thought about it… they were pretty far off from town. She probably wouldn’t make it regardless. So maybe it’d be better to just let go now, before anyone caught on…?

Before she even had time to second guess herself, she began leaking. But having resigned herself to her fate by that point anyway, she relaxed her bladder on the spot. In seconds, her padded crotch was enveloped in a rush of warmth, her eyes glazing over for just a second before she remembered Argo was looking right at her. But as she continued wetting her diaper, one look at Argo’s face told her that second was more than enough.

This is so embarrassing…!

But Argo didn’t even point it out this time. Instead, she merely winked at Asuna with the eye opposite Asuna’s partner, as if to make sure the black-haired girl wouldn’t notice. “So, if we’re going back to town, you could use the Col from the other loot to fill out your equipment. What do you say, sensei?”

“A speed-first fencer doesn’t want much metal armor slowing her down.” Those violet eyes seemed none the wiser. Had the informant just… covered up for her?

Argo replied with a casual tone. “Ah, good point. Hear that? Lucky you, A-chan, you’ll have extra money!”

As Asuna finished peeing and they left for town, Asuna couldn’t help but think that as long as she was surrounded by kind friends like these, maybe being stuck in diapers for the time being wouldn’t be so bad.


“Much obliged!” the NPC smith said with a hearty smile.

After he took Asuna’s new rapier off the anvil, cooled it with water and returned it to her, I looked over at Argo with a smile. “Looks like it worked.”

She responded without even looking up at me. “So it seems.” Looking over at Asuna with an appraising gaze, she addressed the fencer with a casual tone. “It’s now a Wind Fleuret +4. How does it feel?”

Her hands now holding the rapier, Asuna started using her newly-upgraded weapon to repeatedly stab at the NPC smith, constantly triggering its dialogue to ‘be careful.’ With her new, stronger weapon, Asuna’s basic thrusting now seemed around as fast as her Linear from when we first met.

To think her iron rapiers were holding her back that much…

“It’s much lighter now,” she said as she continued to stab at a breakneck pace. “And it doesn’t wobble anymore.”

As she finally stopped stabbing that poor NPC, Argo turned to me and concluded, “She’s got a good eye for weaponry.”

I smiled down at her. “No kidding. She’s a fast learner.”

As I turned back to Asuna, I felt a familiar pressure starting to build. It was small for the moment, but it would be hard to ignore. I kinda… had to pee. And given my new side job with Argo, that meant I’d be wetting myself during the day for the first time in years in short order. I took a deep breath, then tried to relax my bladder, but…

It’s… not coming out.

After almost ten seconds, I realized it wouldn’t be so simple. Guess I probably should’ve expected this, given how all my stats were all optimal just last night, but… given the current circumstances, it was still a little annoying. I quietly sighed, realizing that mapping out these stats would be harder than I thought.

But then, I heard a bell SFX and a menu popup appeared in front of me. A message. From who, though? I tapped on it and the window expanded, revealing the sender as Argo. I gave her a sideways glance before starting to read.

“Trying to wet yourself in public, huh? You sure are taking our deal seriously, Kii-boy. But if you really wanna do it, there’s a trick that makes it easier.”

Just as I finished reading, Asuna stopped appraising her rapier and asked us, “Can this… go up to +5?”

Oh, right. The Wind Fleuret had six upgrade attempts, but…

“You can’t get what you need for it on the first floor,” Argo replied almost immediately.

Asuna sighed, eyes closing in resignation. “Oh… too bad. So this is the best I can do for now. Thanks anyway.” Asuna slowly sheathed her rapier before walking to the door. “I have something else to buy, so I’ll see you later. Tomorrow at ten.”

After saying the time while looking me in the eyes, she walked out of the smithy. Which meant that Argo and I were now alone together. Only one thing to do, really… though I could feel my wallet getting lighter already.

“So… you mentioned there being a trick?” I asked, looking over at Argo through narrowed eyes. “How much is this gonna cost me?”

Argo smirked up at me. “Gettin’ right to it, eh? Well, I haven’t verified this myself, so it’s nothing to charge for, but… I’ve gotten reports that visualizing yourself letting go makes it easier to actually do it. And the more you believe you can’t hold it, the harder it becomes to, well, hold it.”

Visualizing it…? Something that simple? And then belief or willpower on top of that… well, it was worth a try. I closed my eyes, relaxing all my muscles… and then began imagining myself starting to pee. Imagining it leaking out of me without restraint, imagined my Starz diaper growing warm, imagined the white stars on the shell turning yellow…

‘Pssss…’

And just like that, it actually started happening. Even now that I’d snapped out of visualizing it, the flow didn’t stop. I continued wetting myself for a good ten seconds before the flow began to slow down. When it finished, I instinctively lifted the hem of my skirt to get a look at my diaper. Looked like I wouldn’t need to change for a while, it could still hold quite a bit more.

“Thanks for the show~” Argo teased, nearly making my heart beat out of my chest from shock. Right, she was still there… “You wear the same ones as A-chan, huh? What’s the story there? Is this the return of «Ladykiller King» Kii-boy?”

I dropped my skirt with a sigh before crossing my arms. “You’re never gonna let me live that down, are you? Look, maybe you had the courage to play as your actual gend— forget it. Not feeding the troll.”

“I mean, if I can’t sell it, I may as well have fun with it,” she replied, smirking at me with a casual shrug.

Can’t sell… oh, that reminds me.

I uncrossed my arms, using one of them to lift my skirt for a second and the other to point at my slightly used diaper. “Speaking of things you aren’t selling, why did you choose not to sell the fact Asuna is wearing these? Pretty sure it belongs on the whiskers tier, if not higher. You decided not to do that right after making a deal with me about mapping out the bathroom stats, too. Don’t tell me that you… no way…”

Midway through me saying all that shit, I dropped my skirt as Argo stretched out the waistband on her pants to reveal… a diaper. Like my Starz drops, hers only had one tape per side, but hers was a different print, with cartoon versions of some floor one mobs on the plastic shell. And… some of them had partially faded away, with the white background yellowed, so she must’ve—

She let to of the waistband, letting it snap back into place as her cheeks got a little red. “I’m not selling the reason I’m in these. I keep you and A-chan’s secrets, you’ll keep mine. We clear?”

“Y-yeah…” I stammered out, trying to fight the heat in my cheeks. Considering how embarrassed both of us were at this point… how about a distraction? “Moving on, I’ve got another job for you…”


As Asuna walked through the crowds of «Tolbana» glad to finally be in a fresh diaper, she got the distinct impression she was being followed. It was probably just her imagination playing tricks on her, but… she had been feeling like this ever since she bought the last piece of battle gear to switch out with the big metal equips she currently had on, per her partner’s advice.

It made it even harder to search for the store she was currently looking for. Because if she was being followed by some creep, for them to see her walking into this store would be…!

Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that…

But then, the shop she’d been looking for for the past twenty minutes or so finally entered her field of vision. She walked up to a storefront simply named, «Elizabeth’s Secret» and breathed a sigh of relief. “Found it…!”

She hurried through the door before anyone outside noticed her, then set about slowly walking through the racks of underwear of all shapes, types and sizes. Yes. The thing she’d wanted to get to end her shopping binge for the day… was underwear. She knew no one could even see it, but…

Now I can finally get a bra to match these diapers she gave me…

It might not have seemed important, but the fact her bra was still from her starting equipment when her diaper had such a… flamboyant design— it really bugged her. Her mom had always insisted she do it as part of “dressing properly,” and now she’d gotten self-conscious about it. She knew it was really dumb to be worrying about this a day before her life would be on the line, but she wanted her underwear to match…

After wandering throughout the store, her eyes settled on a bra of bright blue color, with a white and gold lace pattern. That… was close enough. She walked up to it and found that it was the last one. She stared at it for a second, feeling like something was off, before she finally noticed.

“Aaaaaaah!”

Standing on the other side of the clothing rack was a familiar, whiskered face. That of an informant. The literal last person she wanted to know she was buying this. After she stopped screaming, Argo addressed her with a low voice, barely above a whisper.

“I was hopin’ I’d be able to sell this,” she said, seeming to fight off a smirk. “But considering the design, you’re gettin’ it to have a matching set, right? Or as close to it as it gets. Not sure why, but… I won’t tell a soul.”

Asuna’s frantically beating heart finally started to calm down after hearing those words. She grabbed the bra off the shelf, using her free hand to clutch her chest. “Thanks, but… I can’t keep owing you favors. And after all the times I’ve heard you say you wouldn’t sell my info, I’m starting to doubt you really will…”

As she spoke to Argo, she noticed something mildly unsettling. Her crotch felt warm. Had she… wet herself a little when she freaked out just now? That wasn’t good… she’d have to check her bathroom stats once she had some time to herself. She had a feeling they got even worse…

But then Argo did something that… well… demanded her attention. She stretched out the waistband of her pants to reveal what she had on underneath, just long enough for Asuna to see it. “Sellin’ info on this kinda stuff would be pretty rich of me, wouldn’t it? No, this is one of the kinds of info I’d rather bury, if you catch my drift.”

Asuna’s cheeks flushed bright red, but in spite of her embarrassment, she had to admit the informant had a point. And also, well… the knowledge that even the game’s greatest informant shared this particular struggle of hers was… reassuring. She was grateful for the kind gestures her partner had made in wearing with her, but ever since the boss meeting, she’d felt… abnormal. Like a freak who couldn’t control herself.

But if this problem was so common that even someone like Argo suffered from it, then it might’ve been a bit more normal than she thought. And that put her at ease. It laid her insecurities since the meeting to rest all at once.

She still wanted to get back into normal underwear as soon as possible, but… well, at least for now, she could live with herself like this.


As I waited for Argo to show up at the designated meeting point in the alley between two buildings, I couldn’t help but ponder how long I’d be in diapers for, per my agreement with her. Though I’d also made a promise with Asuna, the deal with Argo was liable to last far longer than Asuna stayed in diapers herself. I pulled up my status window to check my bathroom stats again. And just like when I did this the last time, the bladder stats had barely changed, and the bowel stats remained untouched.

If I really wanted to get through this as quickly as possible, I’d probably need to start eating and drinking more often. But using my diapers more frequently would mean changing them more frequently as well, and that kind of thing would be hard to do in dungeon crawling sessions… then again, Asuna had been wearing them in the dungeon when we met, so maybe there were adequate places to stop and change out of view of passersby.

Even assuming I got the process of undoing my toilet training going faster, mapping out the stats certainly wouldn’t be the end of my time in protective garments. I’d said it to Asuna before, but I’d heard horror stories about what happened to people whose bathroom stats dropped below a certain threshold. It could be next to impossible to raise them back up from zero, if what I’d heard were to believed.

Wait… Argo mentioned that belief and visualization both play a role. Could they also be used to hold it and raise my stats, rather than let go and lower them?

“Yo. Spacing out, Kii-boy?” Hearing a familiar nickname, I looked up, finding Argo standing in the street next to me, facing forward. “Anyway, no need to worry. Nobody plannin’ to die tomorrow would buy things like that.”

The tension in my body relaxed, and I offered a laid back smile as I stepped out of the alley. “All I said… was that I wanted to know where our beautiful companion was going shopping. Here, a thousand Col.”

“Thanks.”

After going through my menu and sending her the money, I began walking away, determined to find some new methods to cash out on my first fifty K payout as soon as possible. I threw Argo a wave with my left hand without looking back, almost disappearing into the crowd before she called out to me.

“Huh? You didn’t want to know what she bought? You might regret it.”

Rather than rise to her provocation, I just kept walking. If I wanted to get some extra capital to spend sooner rather than later, there was a lot to be done to make it happen.


December fourth, Sunday, at ten AM. This deathtrap started at one o’clock in the afternoon on a Sunday, on November sixth. In three hours, it’ll have been exactly four weeks since it all began.

When I first realized the logout button was missing, I believed it was a bug. I figured even if it was a tough one to fix, the button would be back in a handful of minutes, an hour tops. Then, the release condition of clearing all hundred floors of Aincrad was handed out to us all by Kayaba Akihiko, clad as a faceless Game Master. At that point, I vaguely expected we’d be imprisoned for around nine months. I knew an average of a floor per day or two was expecting too much, but to have two days to scout a floor out and one to clear it seemed a bit more reasonable.

But reality was harsher than that. Four weeks in, and we hadn’t even reached the second floor. Now, I could only laugh sarcastically at my naive, optimistic miscalculation. And depending on how today’s boss battle went, we might be knocked down to a situation where the time of our release stretched out so far we’d die in the hospitals long before any of us would’ve died in-game.

The forty-four players currently gathered in the fountain plaza in Tolbana, myself included, could be considered the strongest fighting force we could’ve hoped for at this point, headcount aside. If it were wiped out today— no, if it were even partially destroyed, rumors of it would spread to the «Starting City» in less than a day. And if that happened, the idea that SAO is impossible to clear would spread throughout the entire first floor in a similar amount of time. Reorganizing a second force could take any length of time, if a repeat challenge against the boss ever happened again to begin with.

And as far as level is concerned, we’d passed the efficiency limit for EXP on this floor several levels over by now, especially players above level ten like me. The fate of this battle, and consequently clearing the game in general, hinged on whether the boss monster, «Illfang the Kobold Lord’s» strength and abilities had changed since the beta test. If it was the boss I remembered, it shouldn’t be impossible to keep it down to zero deaths with our current levels and equipment even as a single, incomplete raid party. But…

With all the changes I’ve been forced to adapt to up until now…

“You’re spacing out before the boss battle. Should I be worried?” A familiar voice called out to me from my left.

I turned and came face to face with Asuna, who seemed clad in lighter attire than before. Though it was kind of hard to tell with the cloak covering most of it, only revealing glances at a time as she walked over.

I waved at her with a smile. “Morning, miss fencer. Seems like you took my advice seriously and got some lighter equips. Nice.”

“Thanks. Your advice really helped,” she said, her casual smile becoming demure. “I can feel the difference already. I should be much faster now.”

And her speed was already comparable to mine when we met… it’ll be fun to compete with her as the game progresses.

At this point, though the result of the raid could be called into question, I felt reasonably confident the two of us would survive this battle, at the very least. I’d seen Asuna fight, and she got used to party battling pretty easily, so I knew we’d have good synergy in the actual boss battle. Plus, we’d likely never get a chance to touch the boss anyway unless—

“Hey.”

Hearing a gruff voice that could hardly be called friendly call out to me from behind, I spun around with a hint of annoyance. Standing in front of me was a familiar male player with pointy brown hair styled to conjure the image of a cactus. My body wanted to flinch back in revulsion at my bad luck running into this cuck, but I fought the instinct and stood my ground.

He sure did seem to glare at me pretty hard. Was he trying to intimidate me? Because it didn’t work. What exactly was his problem? After an uncomfortably long silence, he spoke. “Listen up. Today, you two stay in back. You two are only here as support for my party.”

“…”

Honestly, I thought of a lot of retorts for that in a small amount of time. But none of them were worth the effort and unpleasantness of making conversation with this asshat, so I stayed silent. Plus, considering just the day before, I rejected his offer of eighty-thousand Col for my swords, and then even learned his name that he’d tried to hide for so long through proxy and hush money, this situation would be awkward to anyone with context and half a brain cell. Were the roles reversed, I wouldn’t want to step within a twenty meter radius of him. What was this guy thinking, coming over to order me around in spite of everything?

And on top of all that, his attitude just now suggested he thought I should be intimidated by him. Which was asinine. My level was higher, my stats were higher, my gear was better. He sneered at me arrogantly, hatefully distorting his face even more than before, and spat one more thing out.

“Be a good lil’ girl and pick off the spare Kobold scraps we let drop from the table.”

Okay, fuck this silence bullshit.

“Oh? Look, pal, I’m not intimidated by your tough guy act, and I don’t take orders from you,” I replied without a moment’s hesitation, eyes narrowed to slits. “Just because you didn’t get some new toys the other day, you think you have the right to act like a total ass? News flash: I don’t take shit from anyone, least of all dopey cockholsters like you. Don’t like that? Then don’t talk to me.

The last four words were delivered with a ferocity that made even the rough-and-tumble Kibaou’s eyes widen in shock. And when I rested my left hand on the hilt of my left sword to further the point, he looked between my hand and my face in silence for a good five seconds, before turning tail and fleeing back to his party without even defending himself. I just turned away from him in a huff, angry at myself for even wasting words on that meatsack.

“… What was with that?”

In the heat of the moment, I completely forgot Asuna was even here, much less included in the ‘you two’ that Kibaou ordered around. Her glare off into the distance was almost infinitely more intimidating than the cactus-headed prick behind me.

“He’s just mad I didn’t sell him my swords the other day, so he had to try and assert dominance,” I replied without even flinching.

But then, a thought occurred. Or maybe… he doesn’t want a former beta tester to prosper.

If one presupposed this, then he must’ve known I was a beta tester for a while now, probably since before we ever met in person. But how did he figure it out? Beta info was something even Argo wouldn’t sell. And up until now, I’d only ever mentioned the word beta to Asuna. And Asuna figured it out too late to have been the cause.

I guess Coper would know… but I saved his life, and he isn’t the type to sell out his own kind. We didn’t even discuss it before parting ways.

While feeling something unpleasant in my gut, I turned back over to look at Kibaou with a speculative glare. And then, it hit me.

Two days ago, Kibaou offered a ridiculous amount of money in order to buy my swords, two «Anneal Blade +6» weapons upgraded with identical specs. That was the one undeniable truth of that exchange. And he probably intended to use at least one of them in today’s boss fight. Putting aside whether he could even wield a single copy as effective as I did both of mine after all the successive upgrades they’d been through adding to their weight, his motive should’ve been clear. He wanted to show off a powerful weapon at a crucial moment to add to his influence and leadership qualities.

But if that were the case, he’d definitely have spent the eighty-grand on upgrading all his equips he already had, maybe even getting some new ones. But the scale mail he currently wore and the one-handed sword on his back were the same ones he already had equipped at the first meeting. They weren’t terrible equips, but with eighty thousand Col, it should’ve been possible to upgrade to much stronger stuff given the time difference between then and now.

Heck, even Asuna had filled out her equipment with things much more suited to her weapon, build and playstyle in preparation for today. Depending on the flow of today’s battle, we could die, so what point was there in keeping a large stockpile of unused resources if it ended up getting you killed?

However, my time to think about all this had just ran out. Our noble blue-haired leader Diavel had arrived and hopped onto the edge of the fountain, and just started raising his fitting, knightly voice.

“Okay, everyone— first off, thank you! We’ve got all forty-four members from all eight parties present!”

A cheer tore through the plaza, followed by a round of applause. I reluctantly dropped my thought process for the moment and clapped along with the others. With a hearty smile for everyone in the crowd, the leader pumped his fist and shouted out again.

“Honestly, I was prepared to call the entire operation off if anyone didn’t show!” he admitted, sounding somewhat sheepish. “But now I realize that even thinking these things was an insult to everyone! I’m quite happy. We’ve got the best damn raid party you could possibly want, even though the numbers are slightly short!”

Some people laughed, whistled, or bumped our their fists just like him. But this was the point where I stopped going along with the crowd for a pretty simple reason. I didn’t want to find fault with Diavel’s leadership right now, but…

Isn’t he getting people a little too excited?

Just as too much nervousness could lead to the poison called fear taking root, too much optimism and excitement could cause negligence. During the beta period, being defeated due to overenthusiasm would be a funny story to tell a friend. But now, our situation meant that failure could lead to one or even many deaths. Being a bit uptight would be preferable to this by a longshot.

While I thought these things, I looked at the other groups around me. The leader of group B, the axe user Agil, and the five people around him all had stern impressions with their arms crossed. They for sure could be counted on in a pinch. Kibaou of group E had his back to me, so I couldn’t get a read on him…

I’ve still got a bad feeling about him in my gut… wait.

That wasn’t just any feeling in my gut. I’d been so focused on the mysteries surrounding Kibaou that I hadn’t even noticed. I had to poop. Good thing I noticed here, rather than while we were in the field or in the dungeon. Now I could go, change and slip back into the crowd before we all left.

Visualize it…

I closed my eyes and tuned out the cheers all around me, and began picturing my diaper bulging out, the mess ballooning out into the seat of my pants. And just like that, it actually started happening, just like I’d been practicing with peeing since yesterday. And… oh god, I was starting to understand why Asuna had foregone food in the dungeon to avoid this…

Just don’t focus on how it feels…

After a good thirty seconds or so, my bowels stopped pushing, and I opened my eyes, checking the back of my skirt without thinking. Good, I still couldn’t tell. I’d gotten a tailor to lengthen my skirt a bit in preparation for this, and now I felt confident that you couldn’t see it beneath the hem.

And luckily for me, these Starz diapers had a bonus effect of completely blocking out odors, so no one would be the wiser… I just had to sneak out of the crowd to change before we left town. And try to ignore how it felt to have my own solid waste affixed to me until then…

Around that point, amidst the cheering of the crowd, Diavel raised both hands to suppress the cheering. His audience quieted down and readied themselves for what he had to say.

“Everyone, I have one thing left to say, so listen well!” He reached down with his right hand, the drawing of his silvery sword echoing in the plaza with a ringing peal. “Let’s win!”

I couldn’t help but feel the huge roar of excited war cries that ensued bore more than a little resemblance to the terrorized screams of ten-thousand I’d heard at the center of the Starting City, when the horror of what we had to do and what was at stake became crystal clear.


And just like that, the number of diaper girls in the story has increased again. Not gonna lie, Kiriko and Argo being in them is nice and refreshing for me, since I was kind of getting bored just focusing on Asuna.

As an aside, I’m not sure what I want the reason for Argo being in diapers to be yet. I have some ideas, but nothing which would get her bathroom stats under 500, which is the goal. Let me know via comment if you have any ideas!

Anyway, I’m gonna get back to work on chapter thirteen. Catch you next time!

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Argo being padded up was not something I expected, but it is something I appreciate. I have a couple suggestions for what would degrade her stats to that degree, despite her relatively solid skills at the game and beta experience.

Suggestion the First: Given her tendency to gather information through contacts and direct observation, gearing up with diapers would make for a reasonable decision in order to minimize downtime and allow for her to continue moving for longer periods without rest, increasing her overall efficiency. After a few weeks of this, and increasingly casual diaper use when the urge strikes, her stats begin to degrade, as if the game mirrors IRL continence training, going as soon as you feel the urge weakens your ability to hold, and to feel it coming on. Holding it does the opposite, naturally.

Suggestion the Second: It could be something based outside of the game, and something of a comfort/familiarity thing, the reasoning for her use of diapers could easily be a continuation of a habit IRL, and that reason could be picked as appropriate.

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11 minutes ago, Darksyn said:

Argo being padded up was not something I expected, but it is something I appreciate. I have a couple suggestions for what would degrade her stats to that degree, despite her relatively solid skills at the game and beta experience.

Suggestion the First: Given her tendency to gather information through contacts and direct observation, gearing up with diapers would make for a reasonable decision in order to minimize downtime and allow for her to continue moving for longer periods without rest, increasing her overall efficiency. After a few weeks of this, and increasingly casual diaper use when the urge strikes, her stats begin to degrade, as if the game mirrors IRL continence training, going as soon as you feel the urge weakens your ability to hold, and to feel it coming on. Holding it does the opposite, naturally.

Suggestion the Second: It could be something based outside of the game, and something of a comfort/familiarity thing, the reasoning for her use of diapers could easily be a continuation of a habit IRL, and that reason could be picked as appropriate.

Hmm. I might do something of a combination of the two, actually. I already had an IRL component idea I could use, but I also always love myself some good old fashioned unpotty training. 😛 

Also, am very much glad to find myself in the company of other Argo fans. She doesn't get enough love.

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Argo's depiction is usually a highlight in any decent SAO-based fic I've read. Generally, if they do her justice or make her seem badass (or more badass than usual, rather!) in her endeavours, it's a barometer for how competent a character writer they are, in contrast to lazy, "she's a troll/prankster/paparazzi, lololol" approaches from the less, uh, talented authors.

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2 minutes ago, Darksyn said:

Argo's depiction is usually a highlight in any decent SAO-based fic I've read. Generally, if they do her justice or make her seem badass (or more badass than usual, rather!) in her endeavours, it's a barometer for how competent a character writer they are, in contrast to lazy, "she's a troll/prankster/paparazzi, lololol" approaches from the less, uh, talented authors.

Argo may be a prankster of sorts, but that's definitely not all there is to her. Just putting this out there, but a couple floors into Progressive (some point in floors 4-6, iirc), Argo actually beats Asuna in a duel, and Asuna is on par with/stronger than Kirito in the Progressive continuity, so she's no weakling. Though Argo's weakness as far as battling goes is the fact that she actually overspecializes. She's a pure AGI build, which makes her absurdly fast, but it also means her stamina and defense aren't that high, and she also doesn't hit super hard. But it's still worth mentioning that what she lacks in offensive firepower, she more than makes up for with insane attack speed. Especially because her main weapon is a claw, and claws are actually pretty strong iirc.

And as far as her personality, her playfulness isn't all there is to it. Depending on who she's with, she shows that she's a complex and layered character.

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29 minutes ago, HazelN said:

Thank you for writing this.

I have always been a fan of SAO but this brings it up to the next level. It is fantastic!

P.S. I want some starz diapers too 🙂

Thanks for the feedback!

SAO has been the series I keep coming back to for as long as I can remember. I have a love/hate relationship with canon, but the video game continuity (mostly) and Progressive are far and away better than the source material, so I tend to try to emulate them, for the most part, improving on them where I see fit.

And ye, Starz are the first of many diaper "brands" the cast will be wearing throughout Aincrad. Stay tuned for more as the story progresses!

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First I've actually heard about Argo before so I'm not very familiar with her. So, I can't really say or think of any ideas that could be helpful, that doesn't mean that the other characters I know about won't have me thinking of ideas for them. If you ever need help on that and all I'm just waiting to see where things will go from here and hope to see my favorite person soon.

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2 hours ago, Night Rain said:

First I've actually heard about Argo before so I'm not very familiar with her. So, I can't really say or think of any ideas that could be helpful, that doesn't mean that the other characters I know about won't have me thinking of ideas for them. If you ever need help on that and all I'm just waiting to see where things will go from here and hope to see my favorite person soon.

Which characters in particular are you looking forward to the most? Keep in mind, my SAO will also eventually have Sinon, Leafa and Yuuki in it as a baseline. But I'd definitely like to hear who you're looking forward to, along with any ideas you may have for them.

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2 hours ago, HazelN said:

Are any of the characters actual ab/dls outside in SAO?

As a DL, if I am trapped in SAO, my bathroom stats will probably reach 0 super quick 🙂

One might be. I'm not sure whether I want to make her a DL, incontinent, or both. I've got time on my hands before she's even introduced to figure it out, though. Apart from that character, there's another who could be a DL for totally different reasons, but both of these characters are introduced at approximately the same time, so cause overlap would be somewhat problematic and boring.

That being said, it's worth mentioning that if this story ever reaches a point where I can continue it post-SAO, pretty much every female character who ended up in diapers by the end of SAO will become a DL in some capacity or another. This continuity has the potential to get a story adaptation of the following gameverse titles: SAO Hollow Fragment, Lost Song, Hollow Realization, maaaaaaaaaaaaybe Fatal Bullet (refer to my initial convo with Darksyn earlier in this thread to understand why I'm not super enthusiastic about Fatal Bullet lol), and then Alicization Lycoris. Will there be other SAO games after Lycoris? Probably. Will I be adapting them? That's an almost definite no. Unless they decide to cover the War of Underworld in an entirely different game than Lycoris (which I would be fine with adapting, Alicization is my favorite arc in canon SAO, as low a bar as that is), then my loosely gameverse-canonical adaptations stop right there. They're going to be pretty distinct from the gameverse titles, though, because this story specifically changes the early to mid-SAO events quite a bit, and this is going to create a butterfly effect which will spill over into everything else.

1 hour ago, Night Rain said:

The three you mentioned I do like but I'm mainly waiting for Silica. As for ideas I'd need to think up a few then I can get back to you.

Silica, huh? Not exactly my favorite SAO girl, but eh, I'm no one to judge considering how compromised my own search history is. I do already have plans for her to an extent, though. PM me if you want spoilers, I don't mind giving them out but I'd rather do it out of the public eye.

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We’re almost to the boss battle! Well, the boss battle has been written out for a while, but we’re almost far enough past it in chapter count that I can post it.

Also, I haven’t addressed this in every site I post this story on, so I’m gonna say it here. Over the weekend, I ended up developing Carpal Tunnel Syndrome in my left (dominant) hand. Luckily, it isn’t too bad yet, so I can still type a decent amount before needing to rest my hand if I’m careful.

Anyway, not much else to say in this note. Catch you at the bottom!


Sword Art Online: Of Death Games and Diapers

Chapter Eight: Scapegoat


After Asuna and her partner had made a slight detour to change their diapers on the way out of the city, they rejoined the raid group in their march to the floor one labyrinth. As they walked, a sense of familiarity surfaced more and more, the atmosphere around her feeling innocently similar to an older memory of hers.

The school trip she went on in January of that year. The destination was Queensland, Australia. Her classmates’ excitement went through the roof at the sudden shift from midwinter Tokyo to blazing summer on the Gold Coast, and they reveled in the moment wherever they went, getting excited about every little thing.

The excited atmosphere emanating from the forty-odd people walking down the path beneath the treetops felt almost exactly the same as that time with her classmates. The endless chatting, frequent bursts of laughter, everything save for the presence of monsters that would spring out from the forest on either side from time to time. But of course, every monster that came close got slain in seconds by the skills everyone kept bragging about.

Asuna offhandedly remembered how the swordswoman walking next to her had higher damage than any of them, if the time she saved her in the labyrinth was anything to go by. She could take out every one of those foes in a single blow, even the mobs in the highest level of the labyrinth. Asuna turned to the dark-clothed, dark-haired – well, pretty much dark in every respect – woman next to her and tried to strike up a conversation to fill the silence between them.

“Hey, before you got stuck here, did you…” she started, losing her breath for a moment when her partner turned to her. Why did she have to be so stunning and sparkly when the midmorning sun hit her through the trees like that? “Did you play other… MMO games? Is that what they’re called?”

She replied to Asuna’s question with a slow nod. “Yeah, I did. I wasn’t a pro or anything, so I didn’t make money off it, but I was pretty good at the ones I played, I guess.”

The cloaked girl didn’t even know that professional gaming existed, so when her partner brought it up, it threw her for a loop, just a bit. She gave the black-clad swordswoman a curious stare. “So you were a… gamer girl?”

“Not really, no,” she replied without a moment’s hesitation, visibly flinching for just an instant before immediately recovering. “Games are only one part of the thing I’m interested in— computer science, that is. Before getting stuck here, I worked as an IT tech online, and also tutored people in various subjects I already had down myself.”

That last statement struck Asuna as familiar, somehow. For a few seconds, she couldn’t put her finger on just where she’d heard that before… but then it clicked. About a month before SAO’s launch date, Asuna had been having a hard time studying for the unified mock test, so she’d asked her older brother for help. But since he went to a school that never took it, he’d instead recommended a tutor who’d been helping him out with school for a year already.

When Asuna contacted this person, they ended up getting in voice and video calls to go over the material together, and this tutor had helped Asuna right up until she got stuck in SAO, sometimes even just calling each other to have someone to talk to. And the tutor’s voice and face… no, surely she couldn’t have been…

Only one way to find out.

“‘Because unlike people, computers and academics make perfect sense,’” Asuna repeated the words from the tutor that had left the largest impression on her. “Do I have your reasons right?”

“How did— wait, no way! Were you…?” the dual-wielder looked more flustered than Asuna had ever seen her. “That one rich girl I tutored from Setagaya?”

“I can’t believe it took so long knowing you in-game for me to figure it out.” Asuna looked back on her own forgetfulness with a hint of disdain. “I mean, your voice is exactly the same, and so are your face and your temperament.”

My old tutor looked back at me through narrowed eyes. “My temperament? What’s that supposed to mean?”

Asuna had to suppress a chuckle at that. So it really was the same person… life really worked in strange ways sometimes. The world always seemed smaller than she thought.

“Once you break through that cold shell of yours, you’re the same kind, patient, nurturing person you’ve always been,” Asuna replied with a warm smile.

“Found me out, huh?” the dual-wielder replied, abashed. “It’s… sort of embarrassing…”

The rest of the walk to the labyrinth was filled with a comfortable, amicable silence.


Halfway through the climb to the top of the labyrinth, the raid party decided to take a small rest stop at a nearby safe area. What followed was… unsettling, to say the least.

Asuna pulled the hood of her cape down over her eyes as she grabbed onto her partner’s arm for navigational support. “Where is it safe to look…?”

“Nowhere, keep your eyes covered,” the dual-wielder replied instantly, voice quietly deadpan.

Asuna felt disgusted by this turn of events. All the men in the raid party had picked a spot in the safe area’s inner walls to ‘point and shoot,’ as one of them had called it, relieving themselves of their need to use the restroom by just peeing all over the safe area walls. It was abhorrent. Did they always do this? Asuna had sat in this very rest area multiple times, so if they’d been doing this the whole time, then…

She shuddered. She didn’t even want to think about such a thing.

“By the way, while we’re here, we should probably relieve ourselves as well…” her partner suggested, voice barely above a whisper. “Don’t want the bathroom urges distracting you in the middle of a boss fight. Just try letting go, whether you think you have to or not.”

As much as Asuna hated to admit it, her tutor was right. Bathroom urges could be very distracting in the middle of a fight… they could make it more difficult or even impossible to cast buffs or sword skills. She relaxed her bladder muscles in the way that had become second nature to her, and…

‘Pssssssss…’

The crotch of her diaper became enveloped in a rush of warmth as she began voluntarily wetting herself. She sure hoped no one could hear the subtle hissing, because it sounded almost deafening to her…

“Yeah, like that. You’ll thank me later,” the dual-wielder whispered. Then, as if she could read Asuna’s mind, she continued, “But don’t worry, no one can hear us right now. You’d have to be standing right next to us.”

A blush came to Asuna’s cheeks as she contemplated why she felt more comfortable peeing herself and clinging to a woman she barely knew in VR than she ever had doing anything IRL.

Sensing she was thinking about something important, she inadvertently tightened her grip on her tutor’s arm, not sure if she wanted this moment to end or not.


At eleven AM, we reached the dungeon. An hour and a half later, we finished travelling on foot to the top floor.

I couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief that there hadn’t been any deaths so far. The majority of our group members were experiencing their first raid at somewhere close to full capacity. And in this world, every first experience was chock full of room for human error and hardship.

Hell, the situation here was even worse than that. Groups F and G only had people wielding long weapons like Spears and Halberds. If they got ambushed by the melee-type Kobolds, it could quickly become a nightmare scenario. In SAO, player melee weapons wouldn’t cause damage to other party members or turn their cursors orange, but attacks and Sword Skills would be interrupted. Since polearms were already at high risk from this, an ambush by melee monsters served to highlight this problem even further.

Diavel made good use of his leadership qualities in the face of this issue. He boldly made all the surrounding party members fall back save for the individual leaders of each group, then made them use heavier sword skills to knock back monsters. Once they were staggered, he switched over to melee-weapon-equipped members without a moment’s delay. It was a strategy you wouldn’t think of unless you were already familiar with being a leader in everyday life.

Looking at it that way, maybe it was a bit presumptuous of me, a solo player, to be concerned about ‘too much excitement’ before we’d left. Diavel had his own tried and true leadership methods, and as a member of his raid, it was my duty to put my trust in him along with everyone else.

As I resolved to try and trust him a little more, a huge set of double doors finally appeared in front of us, and I peered over the sea of heads just beneath my eyes from the back of the group to look at them.

Depicted on the surface of the gray stone doors was a relief of a terrifying monster with a beast head and a human body. As for his Kobold guards, in other MMOs these kinds of mobs were trash-tier, but in SAO alone these «Demi-Human»-class monsters were formidable foes which no one should make light of. The reason was that they had the ability to wield weapons such as swords or axes, and as a result could use Sword Skills of their own.

With speed, power, and aim correction far better than normal attacks, even the weakest of Sword Skills could critically hit a defenseless enemy and drastically reduce their HP. The fact my partner Asuna made it to the deepest part of the dungeon using only «Linear», the starter rapier skill which didn’t even cost skill points, only served to reinforce their strength and terror.

I looked back to the ground, tugging on Asuna’s cloak to get her attention. “Listen for a second,” I told her along with my gesture, and she turned to me. “Today, our opponents are the «Ruin Kobold Sentinels». Even though they’re small fries, they’re still strong enemies. Like the guide book says, a large portion of their head and body is covered and protected by metal armor, parts your Linear won’t pierce.”

After listening, Asuna nodded with a reassuringly resolute look. “I understand. Go for the throat, right?”

“Exactly,” I answered with a nod. “After I throw up their poleaxes with a Sword Skill, switch with me and jump in right away.”

After Asuna silently nodded and then turned around to face the boss door, I held my gaze on her for a few more seconds.

“We’re all going to die anyway! The only difference is when and where, sooner or later!”

I still vividly remembered those words from when I saved her in the labyrinth’s nineteenth level. I couldn’t let those words be proven true. Asuna’s Linear clearly demonstrated natural talent on a level rarely seen that she herself was probably unaware of. Shooting stars didn’t always burn up and vanish in the atmosphere—  a select few withstood those burning flames and managed to reach the ground.

She has so much untapped potential… I can’t let it go to waste, I thought to myself, gaze hardening as I prepared to face the task ahead of me. A long, arduous task that could end up getting me killed. I have to be there, guiding that potential until it becomes reality.

If she could survive today’s boss battle, Asuna’s name would become known throughout this world as one faster and more beautiful than any other. The countless players crushed by fear and despair would look to the guiding light of that shooting star, I just knew it. It was a role I could never take myself. Not an original tester like me, not someone who hated dealing with other people like me. This was a responsibility only someone like her could fill.

Confirming my determination, I also faced the door, looking over the tops of everyone’s heads to confirm our progress. Diavel had finally finished fine-tuning the arrangement and lineup of each of the seven full parties. This time, even the knightly Diavel didn’t dare start a lighthearted cheer. Humanoid mobs would react to loud noises if he did.

“Any last questions before we go in?” he asked of us. For a few moments of no one raising their hand to bring up the topic on my mind, I raised mine with a quiet sigh. He noticed it right away and called out to me. “Go ahead.”

My raised hand curled into a fist, except for my index finger. “Just one,” I said, my voice making the crowd break up so everyone could see me. I heard a few murmurs about the presence of another female player, but chose to ignore them in favor of stating my thoughts. “What happens if the intel from the beta-based strategy guide is different from what actually happens in there?”

The whole crowd went silent all at once. I could tell that none of them had even considered this scenario, and that proved itself a troubling sign, to put it mildly. Even so, I pressed on, more out of necessity for my own and Asuna’s sakes than out of a genuine sense of caring about and belonging with any of the others. “Diavel. Can I assume that as the leader, you’ll give the order to retreat?”

“Of course. Human survival is our top priority,” our knightly blue-haired leader responded without hesitation. “But our simulated battle strategy is perfect. We’re not going to let anyone die.”

“Don’t pay ‘em no mind, sir Diavel,” Kibaou interjected unexpectedly from in front of me. “They just dunno what kinda leader you are. Only reason they’d be so skeptical. Maybe if they’d taken part in the trainin’ session instead of goin’ AWOL, they’d know.”

At his brash, foolish judgment, I scowled and snapped back without thinking. “Maybe if you had the third of a brain cell required to recognize that things rarely go completely according to plan and the word ‘perfect’ is a mythological concept, you wouldn’t criticize me for being cautious.”

The cactus-haired man turned around with animalistic fury in his eyes, but before he could rebut my claims, our leader spoke again. “Both of you, that’s enough. Kibaou, she has every right and reason to tread with caution. This is the most dangerous enemy on the first floor, and should not be taken lightly. And Kiriko-san, your point is well-taken. I assure you that I won’t let anyone die in the raid. If things get bad enough, we will retreat.”

I felt like a grade-schooler, having someone else resolve an argument that I easily could’ve ended myself. But I held my tongue and didn’t snap back at Diavel for intervening— my mind had just completely shifted topics to something else altogether. Diavel, he…

He knows my name.

I had never told him, nor had I ever interacted with him for more than a few seconds at a time. And I didn’t have a big reputation which could’ve told him who I was before we met. Yet for some reason, he knew my name. Who did he learn it from, and why did he want to know?

Our noble leader seemed completely oblivious to my inner storm, turning back around to face the boss door. “Let’s win this thing. Come on, let’s go!”

With that quiet command, he pushed the doors open, leading us to Aincrad’s next stage.


December 3rd, 2022

Tolbana

First Floor Boss Battle Eve

Back in the beta, Argo the «Rat» developed quite the reputation for being an elusive player. Almost nobody could contact her directly, because next to no one got close enough to register her as a friend. And yet she always showed up right when people didn’t want her around. It was a safe bet if you were doing anything out of the ordinary, that info would be for sale the same day.

In the retail game, Argo’s elusive habits hadn’t changed much. Now SAO’s true nature as a deathtrap had been revealed, she’d decided to expand her contact list as much as possible to increase the avenues by which information came to her and reduce her margins of error as much as possible… but all that really amounted to was a larger friend list and longer DM history. She still almost never showed her face to anyone.

In that regard, Kii-boy and A-chan of the frontlines were something of a special case. But she’d initially made direct contact with Kii-boy looking for something of a bodyguard to be there when a deal fell through and suddenly became dangerous, and other things unsuited to a non-battle type like Argo. And her making direct contact with A-chan was… an accidental occurrence that she found herself regretting less and less, the more times it happened.

But on this night, she had someone to meet— and for once, it wasn’t Kii-boy or A-chan. They’d been together all morning anyway. They’d chosen to meet up at an ironic place, given her client’s name.

And so, wearing her usual tan, hooded leather cloak to conceal her identity, she made her way through the cold, dark winter streets of Tolbana until she found herself in front of a building reminiscent of an old-fashioned chapel of the Roman Catholic Church. There, she would meet the player with the devil’s name.

She walked up to the front door, doing her best to ignore the pictures in the stained glass windows on either side. Turning the knob with a soft click, she entered the church and found herself in a room illuminated only by the moonlight that filtered through the stained glass windows above. This church only had a single room, as one would expect of a church set in medieval times.

The room, whose only strong source of light came from a single large, non-painted glass window near the ceiling on the right, could only be described as a hall of worship. Pews lined the vast majority of the room, with a little space at the back reserved for the stage. During the day, there would be a priest NPC standing on the stage. If a player made an offering of 100 credits, he would perform a ritual that completely healed them, and if one came on a Sunday, he would offer them a quest that would give a green player upgrade materials, and restore the «Karma» of an orange player looking to go back to green again.

However, at this time of night, the NPC would not appear. The whole room had an almost ethereal, empty stillness to it now, just as a real church did after closing. But Argo wouldn’t be fooled; she knew her client was in the room already. She walked down the aisle to the right of all the pews, making her way to the stage and hopping onto it without a sound. She sauntered over to the back of the stage, where a small room-like structure stood against the wall. A crisscross-patterned grate on the door in the center, with two curtains diagonally stretching out on either side. In religious terms, a confessional.

She pulled aside the curtain on the right and quietly slipped inside, sliding it shut behind her as she turned and laid back against the outer wall. The information broker knew that if she had tried to open the door, she’d have found the person she was to meet, but she had no need for either of them to see each other’s faces. Each knew of the other, but they didn’t need to make their relationship as informant and client more complicated than it was already.

“I’ll make the report brief,” she spoke loud enough for the other player to easily hear through the grate on the wall dividing them. “Around three hundred. That’s the number of confirmed dead beta testers in the month since the game started.”

“That’s a large number for someone who didn’t even have a full day to look into it,” a smooth, clear male voice resounded from the other side of the grate.

“I started lookin’ into it before you asked, so I already had it on hand,” she replied simply before continuing to explain. “Based on the login status toward the end of the beta, it’s likely that out of the thousand testers… seven or eight-hundred stuck around fer the retail release.”

She heard her client stir from the other side as he began to realize what this meant. She spoke the heavy words aloud before the silence became too thick to break. “Meanin’ that the mortality rate… is around forty to fifty percent. That’s over twice the rate of the newcomers. The main reason…”

“Is the alterations made since the beta,” her client finished for her.

She nodded, though she knew he couldn’t see it. “It makes sense. Even the tiniest of changes can turn beta experience and knowledge from a powerful weapon… into a deadly poison.”

Argo had lost count of the number of times she’d received a message from a beta player which had been cut off by their deaths. If you tried to write a PM while logging out, or got killed before you finished, it would automatically send if the recipient had already been typed out. And the number of times this had happened to her was so high, she could barely keep track of them all.

“Of course, the newcomers wouldn’t realize any of this,” the man on the other side spoke the cold, heartless truth with a bitter voice. “In tomorrow’s boss fight, if the boss’s equipment or stats are different from the beta information… and if they’re late to recognize and react, causing even one person to die… the mistrust of the beta testers will be irreversible.”

Argo took a deep breath. She knew what she needed to say here. But it took… real courage.

“If that happens, lead their suspicions to me,” she finally said, voice sounding casual for how hard it was to say. “It’ll be the birth of Argo the beta tester. A cowardly, cheating info broker who combines truth and fiction in devious ways… interested in nothing but her own profit.”

There. She’d said it. She’d even given him a way to spin it to his advantage. She let out a silent sigh, realizing that her time in the shadows may have finally come to an end. If things went sour at the boss battle, she’d be dragged out and flayed until she died a brutal, painful death.

“No.”

The Rat looked to the grate in surprise. That refusal had been almost instant, and it felt forceful. Like he hated the idea of blaming her for it.

“I can’t put you through that. If anyone can bridge the gap between beta testers and newcomers…” he elaborated, sounding like he really meant it, word for word. “It’s you, and only you. And it’s your information that allows us to face danger head-on. If we lost trust in that, we’d never clear the game.”

A window suddenly popped up in front of Argo. She scanned it lightly and found it to be a transfer of funds. He was paying her already… which meant he was about to leave.

“Check my payment to see if it adds up,” he plainly stated.

Argo smiled sadly as she hit «Accept» and the funds were added to her account. “Mm. Looks good.”

She heard the sound of a knob turning and heard his footsteps leave the room. But then after he stepped out into the light, he stopped, turned back, and asked a question. “By the way… has anyone else asked you for the same info as I just did?”

In any other situation, she’d have charged him for that info. But in this scenario, knowing that he likely intended to shoulder the blame for anything that went wrong in tomorrow’s battle for himself…

“Just one.” She’d consider that a fair trade, just this once.

“I see…” he trailed off, as if contemplating something for a moment before he seemed to reach a decision. “Good.”

Argo’s eyes snapped up to attention, looking at the silhouette she saw through the curtain. What did… what did he mean by that? What was he thinking?

“That means… there’s at least one person who can take over my role if I should fall.”

“Hate to break it to you…” Argo told him as she smiled in relief. “But she’s not the type to step forward and lead the frontline players. She’d get the hell out of dodge the moment you tried to suggest her.”

“So it’s Kiriko, then? That’s fine.” This time, his clear voice seemed farther away. He’d started walking to the door already? “But you’re mistaken, Argo. The role in this situation…”

He left his own words hanging in the air for a moment, and then she heard him walk further away from the confessional. Finally, just as he would’ve reached the door, he spoke again.

“Is a scapegoat.”

With that as his parting message, the leader with a devil’s name left Argo alone to ponder exactly what would happen when the battle finally started tomorrow.

All she could do at this point… was pray.


So something funny that happened after I finished this chapter: when my editor got to the last scene, he started jerking me off because of it. He said it was atmospheric and shit, didn’t want to edit anything in it for fear of “ruining” it, said he didn’t know what he was missing before he read it, yadda yadda.

I can’t claim full credit for it, since it was an adaptation of a scene from the Progressive manga that didn’t have an equivalent scene in the light novels, but I will say I think it’s one of the best scenes in the entire Progressive series, both manga and light novels, so it was a lot of fun to write and try and recapture the essence of it in purely written form.

Anyway, I’m gonna get back to writing chapter fourteen. Catch you next time!

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For a game based on melee combat, the official material doesn't much cover anything outside of swords. It's in the name, but I can only imagine how many players chose daggers, punch-daggers/katars, axes, polearms, warhammers, maces, and so-on.

If I had one nitpick, it would be that not all spears are particularly long, and a good number are short enough to be used with a kite or heater shield in very close quarters - About as long as an arming sword or long sword, generally - though honestly I'm mostly being pedantic. I'd have personally just explained the long-spears, halberds, etc, as 'polearms'. Doesn't ruin the chapter by any means, just a bit of my inner mil-history nerd shaking her fist. 😛 

I've also noticed that this story does address the disparity in player gender and makes it relevant to the way Kiriko and Asuna (and peripherally, Argo and later others, I imagine) interact with the rest of the progression group and other players in general. It's a nice detail, and I'm glad it is pointed out.

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19 minutes ago, Darksyn said:

For a game based on melee combat, the official material doesn't much cover anything outside of swords. It's in the name, but I can only imagine how many players chose daggers, punch-daggers/katars, axes, polearms, warhammers, maces, and so-on.

If I had one nitpick, it would be that not all spears are particularly long, and a good number are short enough to be used with a kite or heater shield in very close quarters - About as long as an arming sword or long sword, generally - though honestly I'm mostly being pedantic. I'd have personally just explained the long-spears, halberds, etc, as 'polearms'. Doesn't ruin the chapter by any means, just a bit of my inner mil-history nerd shaking her fist. 😛 

I've also noticed that this story does address the disparity in player gender and makes it relevant to the way Kiriko and Asuna (and peripherally, Argo and later others, I imagine) interact with the rest of the progression group and other players in general. It's a nice detail, and I'm glad it is pointed out.

Actually, that's a good point, as weapon variety goes. I do intend to show short spears later now that it's been pointed out, though (also, ofc, Argo uses a claw, Agil uses an axe, Silica and Philia use daggers, Lisbeth uses a mace, etc etc etc). They'd probably be usable with a mod for the Spear skill or a spear-based Extra Skill though, rather than something that you have access to right away. Pole arms are kind of their own thing though, at least in canon. They're a handful of weapon types which are categorized together as far as weapon crafting and upgrading goes, as a Composite Skill that Blacksmiths need in order to work with those weapon types.

As for the gender disparity, yeah, I couldn't not mention it lol. It's so blatant, considering the entire lead group at this point only has three girls, and that's if you're generous and include Argo as a clearer rather than just someone helping the clearers xD.

Thanks for the reply! Your feedback is great, as always!

Edited by WriterForce6XV (see edit history)
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8 hours ago, HazelN said:

Thanks! I don't know why, but reading this story makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. (No my diaper is not wet). 

Also, i hope that your hand gets better soon!

Nice. Glad you like it! And my hand isn't better, but I am learning how to more effectively deal with the issue, so it's not as problematic as it used to be.

Thanks for the feedback. Catch you next time!

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3 hours ago, Syborge said:

@WriterForce6XV Just out of curiosity, have you tried writing with voice-to-text? There will probably be a greater amount of mistakes you need to go back and fix unless you speak really clearly, but you'll be able to write a great deal without having to aggravate your carpal tunnel.

If I lived on my own, I'd probably give it a shot. But I live with family members who don't know about the kink, and it's a small house, so they can hear what I'm saying more easily than I'm comfortable with. Appreciate the thought, though!

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